An automatic commissioning unit with ejectors for commissioning products onto a conveyor belt, in which the products commissioned onto the conveyor belt are transported to an order container and are released into this order container, is known from EP 0 213 360 A1. A product storage means, which extends as a vertical shaft slightly inclined in relation to the vertical direction of the automatic commissioning unit, is arranged in front of and above each ejector. Products of the same class are stacked up in direct contact one on top of another in the vertical shaft. The horizontal ejector located at the deepest point of the product stack pushes out, when necessary, the lowermost product of the stack in the direction of the conveyor belt. If the lowermost product has been pushed out, the product stack is displaced downward by the height of one product under its own weight. Products can thus be ejected or commissioned in a separate manner. The drawback is, besides the limited height of the product stack or product storage capacity, especially that only stackable products can be stored and commissioned, mostly in a cuboid form. Bulky products cannot be handled. If bulky, i.e., nonstackable products shall be jointly commissioned, these products must be commissioned by a human operator manually from a storage container and either placed on the conveyor belt or introduced directly into the order container.
The object of the present invention is to create a process and an automatic commissioning unit of the type mentioned in the introduction for filling an order container, in which bulky, i.e., nonstackable products can also be commissioned reliably, rapidly and effectively.